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The motivational power of beauty: how aesthetically appealing products drive purchase effort in consumers

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THE MOTIVATIONAL POWER OF BEAUTY:
HOW AESTHETICALLY APPEALING PRODUCTS DRIVE PURCHASE EFFORT
IN CONSUMERS
by
Gratiana Denisa Pol
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION)
May, 2013
Copyright, 2013 Gratiana Denisa Pol

Why does aesthetic appeal have such a powerful influence on consumers, who become willing to go to great lengths in order to acquire products with a good-looking design? Despite the substantial progress that has been made in recent years in the area of consumer aesthetics research, this important question still remains unanswered. My dissertation proposes and empirically shows that high-aesthetics product designs elicit two distinct responses— instantaneous desire (i.e., a sudden urge to possess an aesthetically appealing product) and ownership pride (i.e., the buyer’s expected pride of being associated with a good-looking product)—which in turn motivate consumers to expend a substantial amount of effort towards purchasing high-aesthetics products (Studies 1-4). I further show that the alternative accounts of positive mood or the beautiful-is-good stereotype—which have been previously acknowledged in the literature as consequences of a product’s high aesthetic appeal—are comparatively less effective at explaining the aesthetic appeal—purchase effort relationship (Studies 1-4). I finally illustrate how another product attribute that is also visually hedonic in nature—namely, humor in product design—represents a poorer motivator of purchase effort when compared to a product’s aesthetic appeal, and show that the motivational advantage of aesthetic appeal over humor can be traced back to differences in instantaneous desire and ownership pride (Studies 3 and 4). This research contributes toward a much needed theory development in the field of product aesthetics, while also shedding light on the possibly unique nature of product aesthetics among visual product attributes that are hedonic in nature.

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1
THE MOTIVATIONAL POWER OF BEAUTY:
HOW AESTHETICALLY APPEALING PRODUCTS DRIVE PURCHASE EFFORT
IN CONSUMERS
by
Gratiana Denisa Pol
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION)
May, 2013
Copyright, 2013 Gratiana Denisa Pol